Boston to The Seychelles, September 27-28, 2022

After almost 3 years of no travel, we are off again.  This time we are spending almost a month in the Seychelles, then we are going to Africa, specifically Madagascar, Rwanda, Kenya, and Zanzibar for about 3 1/2 weeks.

We left East Brookfield on Monday, September 26 and spent Monday night at the airport because our first flight is left at 8:20 on Tuesday morning.  Our wonderful neighbors, Randy and Karen, drove us to our hotel at Logan.  But first we had to stop at Santarpio’s Pizza.  

Everybody loved the pizza but we can’t recommend the house wine.  

After a lovely dinner, we checked in to our hotel and Rick went to the bar to make new friends. 

We were up early the next day because when we tried to check in with JetBlue (our first flight) they wanted our visa number but the Seychelles does not require a visa.  We tried to resolve the issue with customer service before we left with no joy.  It was no problem at the airport.  

After clearing airport security, we went to the lounge for breakfast and then proceeded to the gate where we discovered that our flight was about an hour late.  We didn’t have a long layover in NY so we were a little worried about making our connection.  In NY we had to change terminals which involved a 10 min walk and more importantly having to go back through security.  Luckily we made it in time and were the last 2 people to board.  

It was a long 12 hour  flight to Dubai and I didn’t think the movies were so great (but the food was pretty good for airline food).  Neither of us got any sleep. We landed at 7:30 in the morning, Dubai time. So although it was light we couldn’t really see the Dubai skyline as we landed. Mostly we saw desert and lots of sand.

The layover in Dubai was also quick as we immediately proceeded to our next flight.  Our initial impression was that the airport was no where as nice as Doha.   We both slept on the flight to the Seychelles since it was the middle of the night according to our body clocks. 

When we arrived on the island of Mahe in the Seychelles we learned that we didn’t need a visa, but we did need a travel authorization which we had could have applied for in advance had we known about it. Instead we spent about 20 mins and a bunch more money applying for it at the airport.  Because of this delay we were the last people to go through customs and when we got to baggage claim our suitcases were not there.  Then we had to wait another 15 minutes for the lady who handles missing bags to come so we could put a claim in.  We hope to get the suitcases either tomorrow or on Friday.  Luckily we have a few things in our backpacks.

We are spending the next 2 days on Praslin (pronounced pralin), the island where we pick up the boat, in an apartment. We will use this time to prepare for our sailing trip.  We took a taxi from the airport to the ferry.  Our taxi driver gave us a very brief history of the Seychelles.  It was first colonized by the French and then the British took it over (they drive on the right as a results of Britain’s influence).  She (our taxi driver) told us that today the Seychelles are independent but part of the commonwealth.  Queen Victoria visited in 1903 and named the capital Victoria.  Queen Elizabeth arrived by boat in 1972 to open the airport.  There are a strong smell of smoke in the air on our way to the ferry.  The landfill had caught on fire yesterday but it was almost out.  

We had to wait about one hour to board (below are a few pictures from the ferry waiting area) the ferry and then had to sanitize our hands and don our masks as we boarded.  The ride was about an hour and very rough.  Between extreme exhaustion and the rough ride I didn’t feel too well.  Rick slept most of the way.  

Once we arrived on Praslin, it was a 5 min walk to our apartment where we were met by Rahib who showed us our apartment.  

We relaxed for about an hour before walking up to the small market to get  water and a few other things.  Back in the apartment I got ready for bed and quickly fell into a deep sleep.  Rick was about an hour behind me.